The familiar d20 elements blend seamlessly with the unique damage system of escalating conditions. Anyone who has played Hero System games will find parallels in the time/distance/power level scale, but more streamlined.
A complete and compact game with enough customization capability to satisfy mechanics-minded GMs and players alike.

The title says it all. This is Mutants & Masterminds with a DC dress and it is a necessity for DC fans and M&M players.

This book gives a broad description of the DC game world and the important characters. This was my first introduction to Mutants & Masterminds and sold me on the system in general. It is my favorite M&M supplement before the Supernatural Handbook.

I liked it, I am a total marvel person, and still I like it. They did not describe the combat very well or the character creation for that matter. But it is a solid product. The art is fantastic, and the powers and equipment divers enough that I could make any kind of super hero/villain. I did not play it yet, but I made some characters with the system and I am very happy with what I found.

I was waiting for a great Superhero game to be released, and here it is! This is a game my friends and I will be playing for years to come. The rules are a little weird at first especially if you are used to the standard RPG setup. This game doesn't use hitpoints, so at first it threw us, but once we were comfortable with it, I love it. All the big characters are here in this starting book, villians and heroes. The art is taken directly from their comics, so it is beautiful. Like I said if this is your first time using this rules set then it may have a learning curve, but once you have it down, your games can be fast paced and action packed!
Definately pick up the second and third volumes they have everyone you could want to use as an NPC. A must have for DC fans!

To be up front I am a huge rpg geek and I love Superheroes and the DCU so I was looking forward to this book. The following is a general review of this book.

Good: Rules are generally pretty solid, if you liked the older version of M&M you will like this version. They did a good job on the lore/setting of the DCU.

Bad: The Editing/layout and word choices. I felt that it was difficult to find stuff in this book. I checked Chapter 8 Action & Adventuring to read up on combat (labeled as Conflicts ) and I find how to attack someone and defend but No way to deterring what the effects of getting hit are, in order to find that I had to check in the Powers Chapter. Another example the Psionic template on page 39 lists Mental Blast as a power the character has, but there is no power called Mental Blast, or even Blast, this falls under the Power Damage (Mental Blast). Seems as is they were trying way to hard to avoid terms that other Super games have used. Wish they would have gone for more classic and straight forward word choices even if they sounded more ‘Champions like’, and wish that chapter 8 was more straight forward even if that meant that you repeated yourselves a little.

Nit picking : Minor Fan boy nerd rage, they really gave Batman a higher Agility then Nightwing? Dick Grayson of the Flying Graysons, Circus Acrobat since he was 5, who has been shown time and time again in the comics as being far more agile then Bruce. Nightwing who’s number one ‘power’ in not being there to be hit, (vs. Batman who takes and lot more hits but just won’t stop). I was really disappointed in this, and hope that is addressed in the book of characters they are doing.

Do to the bad organization of really good material I would have to give this book 2 stars, especially new players I would have to say grab the old second ed M&M or wait until you can check out the new Mutants & Masterminds Hero's Handbook and hopefully the information will be presented clearer.

I should probably preface this by saying that I'm not a M&M guy. I can't tell you what's new in this and what's old.

However, I can speak for this: It's a full game set in the DC Comics universe. There are various blurbs on setting and characters, though you'll probably already know this as a general rule (since most of the target audience consists of people who have at least been exposed to the likes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman).

More impressive is the sheer volume of the game. It's huge. 281 pages, lots and lots of pictures, and giant walls of text (which are admittedly broken up a fair deal).

While it's a lot to read in even 5 sittings (it took me 7, and generally I get in 100-150 pages a sitting), it's got nice solid rules, though it feels very different for a veteran D&D or Shadowrun player expecting walls of rules for things. Pretty much everything is handled by a single d20 check. Look through the giant text, and you'll find that maybe 50 pages max are devoted to plain rules, and the rest focus on content.

The downside to all this content is that it's massive and takes a lot of comprehension. Quick reference? I'll believe it when I see it.

All in all, my only real gripe with it would be the incredibly massive modifiers on a d20, but I state that gripe for almost every game that uses 'em, and in a superhero setting, this is more forgivable (after all, why shouldn't Super-Tough-Character be able to shrug off a paltry bullet 24/7?).

For $20, this is a lot of bang for its buck, and the plentiful art and well-designed game work well together. A must for any comic book aficionado or a GM/player in need of a superhero game.

And, despite the name which might hint towards the book being oriented for a player rather than a GM, the book does do both, it actually has quite a few pages devoted to the GM.

5/5 in my book, because its quality and setting are top notch, and the art is premium.

When you take the world'ss best superhero game and combine the world's super heroes you get a combination of pure awesome that looks exactly like DC Adventures from Green Ronin. Based on the next version of Mutants & Masterminds DCA is not only a great game for Supers play, it is also a great introduction to Supers RPGs for the DC comic fan. All the iconic characters are included, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and more. Plenty of powers, traits, feats and skills to make any character you would want. It improves on the Mutants & Masterminds 2.0 design with some elements of True 20 and some nods to some designs of supers RPGs of the past. Plus the art is fantastic.
The powers are better detailed in this version, giving better examples and explanations.
In general all the rules seem to be clearer and designed with an eye towards getting up and running fast.
I loved the campaign guides and the History of the DC Universe. Green Ronin always did a great job with their own super-hero history, but this is the real deal with 70 years real-world time behind it. Over a dozen heroes are stated up and a dozen villains, (with plenty more for future books) you can either get going by the rules, use one of the templated characters or grab your favorite DC character and go.
I have played, and enjoyed, all sorts of DC based supers RPGs. I have played and enjoyed Mutants and Masterminds. This is the best of both worlds! Can a DC/Freedom City crossover be too far behind?

Like: Everything

Dislike: Would liked more characters stated up, but this is hardly a complaint.

Who should buy? Anyone that is a fan of DC comics or Mutants & Masterminds should already have their copy. If you like Supers RPGs then this is a great game to get.

I collect supers games, from Marvel Saga to Hero System, Brave New World, Aberrant, etc. I collect them because they all have a different take on supers, and a different feel to the game. I like this games, its good, i might even play it, but is it DC? Only in the descriptions, and those don't really matter, so the primary reason for buying the game, the brand, doesn't really matter. Is it worth what you pay for it? Sure, if you want to run supers, or if you really like DC art, but if your looking for THE GAME to run DC Supers, i don't think this is it. In fact, the more i read it, the more i had an idea to use this system to run Marvel supers. but that could just be my personal bias showing

DC Adventures Hero's Handbook - I've heard a lot about this product on various podcasts and blogs and I was interested in seeing it when it arrived. I've never been a huge fan of the super hero genre for role playing or honestly of the DC Universe. Now that I have this PDF in my hands, my expectations were matched, exceeded and then blown out of the water with a large blast of energy.

Let's start with the very first bit you'll see. Alex Ross doing what he does best with his iconic cover art. The art in this massive 280 page PDF is exceptional. The Green Ronin folks had access to the DC Vaults and they obviously spent their time there well. Speaking of iconic art - prepare to meet some iconic characters as well. Even the most anti-comic book person will know such names as the Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, and the list goes on. One after another icons of the super hero world are detailed for our reading pleasure.

At it's core, the game is a d20 system but there have been some pretty interesting modifications. A lot has been stripped out and it's a smooth and well oiled system left behind. Ability scores have been boiled down to their modifiers, two new stats have been added and feats have been redesigned and renamed as Advantages.

Then there are the powers - the heart and soul of any superhero RPG. Powers refer to all extraordinary traits inherent in the superhero (other than stats). There are a ton of them to choose from. You build up your characters powers by taking "effects" which when combined give you such things as super speed or flight. Each Effect has extras that are relevant to these effects and also flaws that pertain to it. A bit of thought goes into character creation at this point but it works to make unique and interesting characters to play.

This book also contains a good deal of back ground information from which you can build your setting and campaign. There are a ton of well known heroes who's stats you can delve in to and suggestions for playing the game. The PDF is done very well, is completely bookmarked and easy to navigate and honestly, a lot of fun to read.

As someone who's not a major super hero fan, I can easily see myself playing or running a game in the DC Adventures system.

The Good: Some gorgeous art, a game system with a proven track record, and the first new DC RPG license in years. The Bad: A flavorless, clinical approach that feels less like a DC RPG and more like a license forced into a system. For a full review: http://bit.ly/9TeKDz